Longtime agent Reich chooses Lemieux over union

Mario Lemieux
was Steve Reich's first client. When they linked up, Reich was 27 and
just out of law school, and Lemieux was only 22.

Reich has been with Lemieux through Lemieux's back surgery, his cancer, the
birth of his dangerously premature son (now 4 years old and doing fine), the
financial reorganization of the Pittsburgh Penguins and his acquisition of the
team.

So when NHL Players' Association officials told Reich that his relationship
with Lemieux violated bylaws prohibiting agents representing players and owners,
there was only one thing to do.

"I have resigned from the Players' Association and their certification program
and I have left our firm," said Reich, who was a partner and the second Reich
on the letterhead at Reich, Brisson, Reich and Theofanous. He has formed
Reich Publishing & Marketing and will handle all of Lemieux's off-the-ice
endeavors.

Reich is widely known in agent circles as one of the Reich (pronounced Rich)
brothers. But the truth is that Tom Reich — the other Reich on
the letterhead — is Steve's uncle and mentor.

"Mario needs a business adviser for his business and marketing, and I didn't
think it was fair to him to walk away and find someone new," Reich said.

Reich told the about 50 hockey clients of the firm that he was leaving. He
added that he feels comfortable that his former partners, Pat Brisson, Paul
Theofanous and Tom Reich, will do a great job representing his former clients.

"We always represented guys as a committee," Reich said. "It wasn't like I
had 10 [players] and Tom had 10 and Paul had four."

As president of Reich Publishing & Marketing, "I am as busy as I have ever
been," Reich said.

He has signed Lemieux to a career-spanning equipment endorsement deal with
Nike Bauer thought to be worth $500,000 a year. His new company also
will co-publish a coffee-table book featuring Lemieux that will be out in September.

"We have a lot of licensing and merchandising opportunities, and I think we
will have something major to announce in the next 30 days," Reich said.

Today's Lemieux is much more interested in endorsement work than he was as
a young player, Reich said. In his first years in the NHL, Lemieux was "a reluctant
star" who was happy that Wayne Gretzky was playing and taking the spotlight
off him, Reich said. But since taking over as owner of the Penguins, Lemieux
has grown into a polished businessman accustomed to speaking before large groups
and to CEOs of companies.

"The biggest difference is we have a person who is more receptive and confident
about being in the public eye than he was the first time around," Reich said.

TELLEM: KOBE DIDN'T MAKE THE CALL: Agent Arn Tellem dismissed
as "utterly ridiculous and totally false" a report on espn.com that Lakers star
Kobe Bryant had called a top executive at another NBA team and begged
the exec to trade for him.

But other sources among agents and the NBA told the same story, with an interesting
twist: They said the team was the Washington Wizards and the executive was Michael
Jordan.

Tellem acknowledged that his client is friendly with Jordan. "Kobe has talked
to Michael off and on for the last few years," Tellem said.

The idea that Bryant wants to leave Los Angeles is untrue, Tellem said. "There
is no way he is leaving the Lakers."

A spokeswoman for David Falk, Jordan's agent, had no comment.

Maureen Lewis, spokeswoman for the Wizards, said she was not aware of
the story and had no immediate comment.

SCUDDER ADDS ENDORSERS: Scudder Funds will be endorsed by five
professional golfers — including Karrie Webb and Steve Stricker
— through headwear deals this year, said David Brenner, president
of Halo Sports and Entertainment, which represented Scudder in the deal.

IMG represented Webb in the renegotiation of a previous deal with Scudder's
predecessor company, Kemper Funds, and IMG also represented Stricker
in working out a new deal with the company, Brenner said.

Three other golfers, John Cook, Bob Estes and Glen Day, are in
the middle of long-term deals that were first negotiated for Kemper and have
been transferred to Scudder, Brenner said.

Brenner declined to comment on the value of the deals. But he noted that the
market has recently turned up for the top golfers. "It is more of a buyer's
market for the players than it has been in the past," he said.

LONG BALL, HIGH RATINGS: After better-than-expected television
ratings last year for the Major League Baseball Players Association's home run
hitting contest, ESPN will broadcast the finale of this year's Big League
Challenge live next month.

The semifinal and final rounds of the event, which is owned by the union and
benefits the Players Trust for Children, will be broadcast on ESPN on Feb. 11,
beginning at 5 p.m. EST. Earlier rounds will be broadcast on ESPN and ESPN2
at later dates.

Judy Heeter, the union's director of licensing, said the union was pleasantly
surprised last year when 14 million viewers watched the first Big League Challenge
as a taped series on ESPN.

DISSON ADDS WEISS TO ROSTER: Disson Skating signed champion Michael
Weiss to an exclusive contract for representation for marketing, endorsements
and skating.

Disson Skating is owned by veteran sports marketing executive Stephen Disson,
who recently sold his corporate consulting business to IMG. He still retains
ownership of the skating company.